


A Day in The Lives of Space Pirates

by WitchfireHazel



Category: Firefly
Genre: F/M, Gen, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-03 06:25:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2841272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchfireHazel/pseuds/WitchfireHazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of one shots showing the day-to-day lives of those aboard the Firefly class Serenity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Back to Normal

**Author's Note:**

> None of the stories will be interconnected, or necessarily in chronological order, but details I write in one will ((should)) remain constant throughout.

"Cap'n? Can I have a word?" Zoë asked simply. The captain had his head so far down in the engine that you couldn't see him from the shoulders up. Kaylee was somewhere in there as well, nothing but her feet sticking out the bottom; they were having a heated discussion on the state of the compression coil. "Sir?"

"Mite busy at the moment Zoë." Mal said without taking his head from inside the engine's carapace. "As you can see Serenity ain't doing so good and the problem needs sussin' out."

"And I told you what her problem is Cap'n!" Kaylee said, her voice muffled by the sounds and bulk of the engine. "She needs more than spit and tape now. That coil could go at any second. We need a new one!"

"Well we ain't got no new one." Mal said, finally pulling his head away from the hodgepodge of wires and metal. "Fix her up as best you can. When we make port you might be able to get a new one." At Kaylee's gleeful squeal he held up his hands even though she couldn't see them, "I said: Might!"

"Sir?"

"What do ya need Zoë?" He asked as he faced her, dusting off his hands as he did so. He took in the look on her face and froze for a second. Since the signals release Zoë had been more distant- the crew knew she was hurtin' but she kept her emotions hidden- but now, the look on her face was something akin to the grief she had kept hidden, as if something had caused the hard shell of hers to crack. He wondered if someone had said something about Wash. "Come on up to the bridge with me. I gotta check and see if Badger's contacted yet."

She followed him in the silence of the trained soldier he knew her to be, but something was off about it, an uncharacteristic shift about her gait. When they stepped on the bridge, River stood and, smiling broadly at Zoë, departed on dancers feet. Mal plopped down and swiveled the pilots chair so that it was facing his First Mate.

"So what'd ya need to talk 'bout?"

She stood there for a second, rooted to the spot, before sighing heavily and walking over to the copilots chair. She sat down heavily and stared off into the black. They sat there for awhile before she found her voice again.

"You asked me once why I married Wash." She began, and Mal started to tell her she didn't have to talk bout it when she cut him off. "No, I have to get this out. I never gave you an answer. At that time I don't think I knew my own self." She paused again, still staring out into the black. Then she swiveled to face him and he saw the raw emotions play across her face; Grief, hate, anger, regret. They were all there. "It took me loosing him to finally figure it out.

"You know what the War did to people. I was a soldier and the War, to me, was just a war. But loosing the men we did... well. it can harden a person. I married Hoban because he made me feel alive again. He brought laughter back into my life. Made me love again." A tear slowly slid down her face and Mal started. Never in all their years of friendship had he seen her shed a single tear; it scared him more than a whole hoard of reavers did. "Now that he's gone, I can't feel any of those things anymore. He took all those things with him. Some days I can't help but hate him for leaving me."

"Ah hell Zoë. You know he ain't left ya yet." Mal said leaning against the console, not knowing a way to comfort his friend.

"No, I know. What did River say the other day? A spark?" Zoë said, smiling now, beaming in a way Mal had never seen her do. He began to realize where this was going and sat back, no longer worried his First Mate was gonna off herself. "'A spark in the black.' That's what she said."

"How long?" Mal asked, a grin on his face.

Zoë laid her hands over her still flat stomach and knew that if her Mister were here, he'd be grinning from ear to ear, trying to pick out Dino names for the baby. "Doc said seven months."

Just then River skipped in holding a piece of paper gingerly in her hands. She quickly handed it to Zoë and skipped back out, not giving either of them a chance to say anything. Zoë flipped the paper over and saw herself and Wash sitting at the table, the others, including the Shepherd, standing behind them. Between the couple was a small bundle with wispy red-brown hair and caramel colored skin dotted with freckles. She clutched the paper to her chest and wept silently, letting go of everything that she had held in for the last month.

The Captain felt now would be a good time to escape so he ducked outta the bridge, feeling that finally things were beginning to get back to normal... And then Jayne's voice floated in from somewhere down below, followed by the eery giggle of River's.

"Gorramit crazy girl! I done told you I ain't a ruttin' girl now back off it before I have ta show ya!"

_Yep_. Mal thought, opening the hatch to his bunk. _Everything's finally gettin' back to normal._


	2. A Gift of Recompense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> River wants to apologize, and she does it in a way that only River can.

"Gorram moonbrained 'feng le' girl." Jayne muttered as he stomped through the empty kitchen. Of all the hair-brained things he was forced ta do, this was one of the worst. He jabbed the combination to unlock his bunk into the keypad and shoved the hatch open, grumbling as he climbed down the ladder. As soon as his feet hit floor he slammed the hatch closed again and punched the combination to lock it.

He kicked off his boots, sending one of them flying into his dirty clothes pile, and unhooked his weapons belt. As soon as he was free of it he turned toward his bed and ripped off the cover that concealed his weapons. He plopped down on the hard surface of his bed and grabbed the nearest gun.

He then stripped it to it's bare parts and began to clean each of them. Normally he'd be at the table doin' this, so that he didn't lose any of the small bits, but ever since Moony had gotten ahold of one a his guns he was forced to do it down in his bunk. "Sure the Cap'n still gets ta clean all a his weapons at the table, the 'Ching-wah TSAO duh liou mahng'!"

"You know, talking to yourself is the first clear indicator that you are going crazy."

Jayne cussed and nearly dropped the part he was cleaning and looked up to see the girl who caused all this. How she got that ruttin' hatch open was beyond him, but there she was, sittin' on one of the rungs with her arms wrapped around the ladder to keep her steady. Jayne noticed that she was holding a bundle of something between her hands, but didn't much care to find out what it was.

"Beat it Moony. Last thing I need is for you ta get ahold of another one of my guns." He said, spittin into the rag he was holdin'. He heard her a shufflin' around so he assumed she had- for once- listened and left. He went to grab another part was stopped when River grabbed his arm. He jerked it out a her grasp like she had burnt him and looked up at her, wondering what in the hell she was up to.

"Society dictates that I present you with a token that states I acknowledge the immorality of my past actions." She said, looking down at the parts strewn about his bed.

"Shén me shì dìyù, nǐ gāng cái shuō?" Jayne said, a blank look on his face.

River giggled and placed the bundle in her hands in front of Jayne. She smoothed it out revealing the Blue Sun shirt he had been wearing when she had cut him. He looked from it to her, not sure how or why she had gotten it. "This is a present to show that I am sorry for my actions."

"But why the hell are ya giving it ta me?" He asked "I sure as hell don't want it back!"

"She needs him to understand why she chose that course of action." River said, sitting on the bed opposite the shirt and him.

"Ya did it cause you're a 'feng le' girl who can't tell the difference between a gun and... something that ain't a gun." He said, grasping for, and failing to find, the right words.

"She was afraid Jayne." River said, a rushed, almost hysterical note to her voice. She laid a finger on the torn and bloody shirt, pointing to the only spot where the logo still shown through. "It's the Blue. They use the image to gain access. Needed to get rid of it, cover it so they could not see."

"Wait so you're sayin' ya cut me open to cover up this logo." Jayne said, his temper rising again. "How the hell is that a ruttin' apology!"

"No! They can see! If you don't cover it up they can see!" River said, becoming hysterical. "Have to hide the Blue!"

"So you're cuttin' me was some sort a protection?" She sighed, glad he was finally starting to understand. Despite himself, he did begin to understand some of the things she had done back then. "So when ya decided to go all crazy over the canned goods ya was just tryin ta-?"

"Trying to hide the Blue." She said, standing back up. Absentmindedly she began to put the parts on his bed back together. In half the time it normally took him, she had put all the pieces back together and held up the gun with a smile on her face, clearly pleased with herself. Jayne just grumbled and snatched it from her hands 'fore she decided she wanted to keep it. She just giggled that creepy giggle and danced toward the hatch.

"This don't change anything Moony." Jayne said, sweeping the shirt off the bed. He had to admit that that sounded like a lie, even to himself, "You're still a basket case who cut me."

"I know." River said climbing outta his bunk. He heard the hatch close and the locks reengage. He wasn't sure what just happened.

He looked at the shirt in his hand, then scoffed and threw it with the rest of his dirty clothes. He shook off the creepy feeling the girl always gave him and grabbed the next gun in line, stripping it like he did the last.

"Feng le girl." He muttered, scrubbing a spot off the barrel of the gun. "Think she can waltz in here and apologize. Prolly thinks I'll be nice to her now." He grunted and threw down the rag, not able to concentrate on his guns. He pieced it back together and replaced it on the wall, before layin' down. Gorram girl had his mind a turnin' and he hated it when it got that way.

He finally fell asleep, mumbling about "crazy girls and their stupid apologies."


	3. Dancing the Monsters Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleep is where the monsters lie, so River simply dances.

A ghost. That's what she was. An aberration that should not be there. Yet here she was, a girl that was not a girl but a weapon. A thing to be used. No. She was a girl. The girl. River. That's not who she is, but who she wishes to be; who she used to be.

River sat alone in the crash lounge, her knees against her chest and her arms around her legs. She kept rocking softly, muttering quietly to herself. The others were sitting around the table, talking about the success of their latest job. She didn't participate, nor did she wish to. The success or failure of their jobs didn't mean anything to her as she floated in and out of awareness.

She came back to herself with a start when she felt someone touch her arm. She knew it was Simon; she felt his thoughts, heard his emotions. He was speaking to her, but she didn't hear him. She knew what he wanted. Wanted to give her drugs to help her sleep. She didn't want them, but couldn't find a way to tell him that they didn't stop the nightmares. They only trapped her in them, like a pile of blankets smothering her. 

So she stood and followed her jailer as he led her to her cell. As soon as he administered the tainted poison he left, closing the door with a soft tap. Instantly things became foggy, and she felt herself slipping, falling into the world where monsters waited.  
...  
She awoke screaming. She huddled in the middle of her bed, rocking back and forth, crying so much she felt that she would become her namesake, a river of tears to carry her away into the black. 

When the tears subsided she grew restless, like an ocean in the storm. She left her room and peeked into Simon's, wondering why he hadn't checked up on her. She found her answer as soon as she peered inside. Simon was gone. Then she felt it. It felt like a tidal wave, but instead of trying to wash her away, it was pulling her closer, urging her to follow it. And she did. She allowed it to pull her from the passenger dorms and up the stairs. As soon as she was in the rear corridor she was able to discern where the waves originated. They were coming from the engine room. She moved to step closer when she realized what those waves were and she blushed, moving quickly into the kitchen to escape their pull, effectively scaring Jayne into brandishing one of his weapons.

"What in Sam hell are you doin' skulkin' round the ship at this hour?" He said as he began to hurriedly gather up his weapons.

"'I wandered lonely as a cloud  
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,'" she quoted dreamily, walking passed him, heading for the front corridor. Jayne followed her, not trusting her that close to the bridge or the rest of his weapons, but she simply heading back downstairs. He muttered something about moonbrains and went back to the table to hurriedly clean his guns.

She twirled once, testing the motion, then repeated the movement, and again, forgetting who she was, as she danced her way to the bottom. Moving slowly around the room, simply forgetting. Letting the walls become her body, the space her mind. When she finished she sank to the floor, slowly becoming herself once again. 

It was then that she felt eyes on her. She didn't look up, she didn't need to. The eyes that bore into her back with the chill of ice and the iron of willpower could belong to only one person. "The Captain wishes to know what the girl is doing?"

"No, the Captain saw what you were doing." He said, descending from the catwalk above. He looked upon the hunched girl, not sure what to make of her. "I was wondering why you were doing it at three in the morning in the middle of my cargo bay."

"Monsters in my sleep. Did not wish to return to them." She said, standing in one fluid motion. 

"I can understand that." He said, hooking his thumbs around his belt. "Care to elaborate why ya was swishin' around the cargo bay like you was at some fancy party?"

"It's quiet." She said in a small voice, a smile playing on her lips. "It's lonely in the black of night."

"Okay. Lets slide right passed the part where that's something to be smiling about. You just be careful little witch. Even mind-reading geniuses can get dead from a fall." He said, giving her one of his rare, genuine smiles. She smiled back and twirled away from him, dancing around the cargo bay once again. Mal just shook his head and climbed back up the catwalk, heading towards his bunk.

River just danced, letting her body become the walls and her mind the empty space in between. And for a while she she was able to forget herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> River quotes the poem "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth


	4. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rain is renewal.

The rain started pouring just as they got back to Serenity from their latest job. The others began unloading the cargo as River rushed up to the bridge to check the weather reports for the moon they were on. She was soon followed by the Captain, who was shaking rain out of his hair. 

"Well?" He said, flopping into the co-pilot's seat. "Can we still make it off this rock?"

"Not likely, Cap'n." River said, checking he extended weather maps for the area. "It seems this moon has a harsh monsoon season, and we've arrived right in the middle of it, when the storms are the worst. This storm isn't likely to cease for a good week, and I don't want to try flying Serenity through that until it calms down some."

"Ta ma da!" The captain cursed. "Fine. Contact Badger and tell him his goods are going to be late, and find the earliest time we can leave. I don't wanna be parked on this hunk of rock a day longer than we have to!"

"Yes sir." River said sarcastically as she turned back toward the console. 

*****

After the initial excitement of the storm wore off, the ship soon fell into a bored stupor. At first the crew occupied their time playing hoop-ball and tall-card, but soon even those games became boring. Jayne- who was once again allowed to clean his weapons at the kitchen table- laid his guns out almost daily to clean them. 

One boring day, Jayne was heading into the cargo bay to lift weights when he noticed the bay doors were open. He cautiously walked towards them, partly unholstering his gun as he did. The rain was pouring down in sheets, which was why he almost missed the small figure standing with her head upturned in the deluge. 

"Hey, crazy! What in the sphincter of hell do you think you're playin' at?!" He yelled over the rain, hoping she heard him; he really didn't want to get his guns wet just cause moony had a death wish. Not that the girl was as crazy as she used to be. But still, one could never be too sure when her craziness would pop back up again. "Hey! You hear me girl?"

When she didn't answer him, he growled and stomped out from under the cover of the cargo bay, cussing as the cold rain soaked into his clothes. He stopped in front of River and noticed her eyes were closed and she was smiling. 

"What's going on in your brain girl?" He said, but not unkindly. Jayne's attitude toward River had changed ever since she gave him her "apology present". He was trying to see passed what she did to what she was trying to say. He went at it as if he was tracking something. Following the clues she gave to get to what she was actually saying. It was hard, and he wasn't always successful, but he was finally starting to understand her... And trust her. He was also cautious never to wear anything Blue Sun around her, scared it would set her off again. 

River opened her eyes and stared at him, that goofy grin never leaving her face. She stared at him long enough that he fidgeted and almost dropped his gaze, but she looked away before he could. She stared off to the obscured horizon, and began humming; a soft tune that was almost swallowed up by the sound of the pelting rain. 

"River?"

"The rain feels nice doesn't it?" She finally said, still looking off in the distance. "It's renewal. It washes away all the old transgressions, leaving only newness. A bright beginning, after the darkness."

"I suppose." Jayne said, hooking his thumbs into his gun belt. "Feels kinda cold to me? How long have you been standing out here?"

"A while." She said, beginning to hum again. Jayne caught the tune this time and realized she was humming a lullaby- one his mama used to sing to him when he was a kid. 

"You been in my head again, girl?" He said, not really caring. She lived inside their heads as much as they did these days. It's how she functioned. If she tried blocking them out, she would just get headaches and begin to break down. By letting in their thoughts, she could function normally- or as normal as a psychic assassin could- and when around clients, she was able to tell if they were being truthful or not. 

"More than the others." She said, confusing him. Why would she go digging around his head for?

"Not digging Jayne, hiding." She said looking back at him. "Your mind is calm. You process things differently. The things you think are usually the things you say. Leaves your mind relatively blank."

Now he was sure that was an insult and he was about to spout an equally offending comeback, but River just giggled and placed a hand on his mouth. Jayne smirked, noticing she had to stretch to accomplish that. 

"Not an insult Jayne. I'm not saying you're stupid. You just leave room for calm. It's what makes you so good in a fight. You push your thoughts aside and let your instincts guide you."

"Humph." He intoned because she still had her hand on his mouth. She removed it and smiled at him, a warm gesture she usually reserved for Kaylee or her brother. He stared at her a moment before he smiled back, something he caught himself doing more of lately. 

"Hey crazy people, what are you trying to do?! Catch your death?" They looked back toward Serenity to see Mal standing in the open bay door, shaking his head at them. He mumbled something about catching crazy and walked back into the cargo bay. 

Jayne looked at the small girl next to him and gestured in the direction of the ship. She smiled again and nodded, dancing back out of the rain. Jayne watched her a moment, wondering at how his view of her could have changed so much, then looked out at the downpour around him. Renewal... Maybe she was right. Maybe rain does wash old wrongs away. He shook his head and followed the crazy girl out of the rain... And into a bright new beginning.


End file.
